Consensee, the Ethereum infrastructure company behind the popular MetaMask Wallet, said it has acquired wallet infrastructure provider Web3Auth in a move aimed at improving usability and developer accessibility across the platform.
The financial conditions for the transaction have not been disclosed.
The acquisition is designed to modernize MetaMask’s onboarding experience and tackle one of the most sustained challenges facing seedphrase management, an independent crypto wallet. According to Consensys, internal data shows that 35% of Metamask users have failed to back up their seed phrases.
Already integrated into approximately 8,200 distributed applications, Web3Auth’s technology provides login and recovery tools that mirror Web2-style user flows. This integration gives MetaMask users the option to access their wallets without relying solely on seed phrases, and to match the broader industry drive towards “account abstraction.”
“This integration greatly improves the capabilities of Metamask and embodies our belief that the best Web3 wallets seamlessly integrate infrastructure that supports a wide range of empowerment capabilities,” said Joseph Lubin, CEO of Consensys and co-founder of Ethereum. “These include frictionless onboarding, customizable interfaces, extensive ecosystem connectivity reminiscent of mycelium networks, configurable security for a variety of needs, and maximum protection in a high-security context.”
The acquisition also covers developer buildings within the MetaMask ecosystem. By incorporating Web3Auth’s Embedded Software Development Kit (SDK), Consensys said it aims to simplify the developer experience and provide more flexible tools for integrating blockchain into consumer applications.
“The future of using Web3 will be filled with embedded wallets that make blockchain integration almost invisible, minimizing user interaction with things that make sense,” said Dan Finlay, co-founder of MetaMask, in a press release. “Together, I think we can help build the best worlds of both. It’s a decentralized web as invisible as possible, but it can come out when users are ready to harness that power.”
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